Happenings

Nigerian workers are increasingly giving up hopes of owning their own homes, as issues of unpaid salary arrears, unfavourable working environment and conditions trail the present administration up till the last lap of its four year tenure.

 Mot workers have for long contended with the exploitative tendencies of house owners, who increase rents randomly.

This in in addition  to the soaring costs of  land and  building materials.

For the National Vice President Western zone of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities(SSANU)Comrade Alfred Jimoh, workers have taken their destinies in their own hands, when it  comes to the fundamental issue of housing.

''The future of workers are in their own hands, as far as owning houses is concerned. I have not seen any meaningful assistance from the management of the University of Ibadan and the Federal Government in particular. The only effort I know, is a revolving housing  loan, but I don't know how effective it is. Workers are making efforts to own their houses with the assistance of cooperative societies and their unions. SSANU acquired some plots of land and distributed same to its members. Also, cooperative societies in the University of Ibadan assist their  members with loans and deduct this from their salaries, As far as Government and our employers are concerned nobody cares'', Comrade Jimoh lamented.

In the views of Comrade Oluwasegun Arojo, the Chairman of the Non Academic Staff Union(NASU), University of Ibadan branch, the beauty of working is to retire into one' own home, with the assistance of government.

''Our members should be able to afford to build their own houses. Let government provide the loans  and direct workers to pay instalmentally, not that when we retire, shelter becomes a problem'', Comrade Arojo stated.

However, the All Workers Convergence(AWC) frowns at the National Housing Fund(NHF), just as it describes fund as a method government introduced to evade its responsibilities.

This position  of the AWC was made  known by its National Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze in a chat with Federationews2day.

''The National Housing Fund is an imposition by the Federal Government of Nigeria, in a bid to run away from its responsibilities to provide either affordable housing scheme for Nigerian workers or giving out housing loans  to the workers. The NHF is used  to scoop cash from the already impoverished workers because the  deductions are mandatory and almost non-refundable until probably after retirement''.

''The interests on the deductions collected from the workers is equally ridiculous. More painful is the fact that the process of obtaining the housing loans are very cumbersome and workers are usually frustrated, making them resign to fate and allow the deductions to continue  without attempting to take the loans''.

'For workers, generally, we feel cheated and because we don't have options, and because we  are not well protected by our industrial unions, we at most time resign to fate. In fact the NHF has never given account of the contributions  and balance of workers on a monthly basis. 

''And if no worker  in the scheme has collected loans within the last 10 and 15 years, and the NHF is not giving reasons why this is so, it means the National Housing Fund is a fraud'', Comrade Emelieze concluded.

Nigerians insist that religious leaders and institutions have not done enough for those who eventually emerged to contest of political offices for several years, this has become a source of worry for the electorate, who believe that their votes have never counted in most elections. In this interview with Federationews2day, the Spiritual head and Founder of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke advises religious leaders to refrain from distributing loot of the affected political office holders among their congregation, in a bid to seek divine favour. Excerpts :

How do you think religious leaders and institutions can ensure the emergence of credible candidates in the 2019 Presidential elections?

First and foremost, Nigeria has a fundamental problem, with respect to the issue of religion. They fail to realize that all religions are working towards the same aims and objectives, one, to educate and enlighten into self realization for the necessary reform into the state of piety and integrity, two, to ensure that adherents have tranquility of mind, three, to promote peaceful co-existence, in order that the community or society enjoys  high level of security.

Religion therefore, is to work on every individual, irrespective  of ethnic or religious differences, to be credible enough to hold in trust, positions of responsibility and power, in order to serve God, through beneficial service to humanity.

However, in Nigeria, religious institutions celebrate profanity, in place of sacredness and hence, fail to produce credible candidates for the purpose of transformation of the society.

With this poor background of Nigeria's religious people, there is no way that they can perform the role of an umpire, whereby, religious leaders, would be able to see themselves as true Fathers of political leaders and true advisers for  correct political practices, that would be Scripture compliant and enjoy the favour of God, through the benefit of uninterrupted divine intervention into human affairs-social, economic, political- for the purpose of achieving, in the areas of the clarion call by the United Nations, of the essence of establishing and promoting sustainable development.

To worsen the case, the Federal Government till date, have been superintending a dysfunctional educational system, which has promoted half baked graduates, which is very glaring for all to see. Observe political office holders and Technocrats, in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, institutional indiscipline and corruption that  are the order of the day.

For the purpose of the fast approaching 2019 general elections,religious leaders must refrain from sharing the loot, stolen by politicians, to derisively , seek the favour of God.

We must all realize the golden advice of Nelson Mandela, that religious leaders need to face the reality of the situation, that no politician is either  a good Muslim or Christian in Nigeria. They believe in sourcing for power from gods and goddesses, but always deceive the innocent masses through religion by propaganda, in order to rule over them.

If  truly Nigeria's religious leaders are working for God, they must join the bandwagon of advocates for promotion of functional education and necessary empowerment processes for our youth, who are  future leaders and  expected to be able to turn around the system of poor governance into that of people oriented and positive political governance, that would  have the very necessary positive impact on the lives of the people. Take not of the fact, that the same people who attend religious houses are the same people, we have in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, in Government, in the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) and the society at large.

Mosques and Churches must refrain from religious propaganda of prosperity, that has led many Nigerians into the world of magic for quick money making ventures, ritual killings, kidnapping and several others, but instead, we must all be role models, as religious leaders, running functional Churches and Mosques, to reform adherents, into scripture compliance, for the purpose of having credible leaders with integrity, who will be able to administer a corruption free society.

For the 2019 general elections, the roles of the Churches, Mosques and other faith based organizations, is to stand by the  truth and the Scripture, to be able to be credible enough, to give  advice which will have the desired impact, as well as to have  their prayer requests for a free and fair  elections to hold.

This is the message of God from Koran 13 : 14 and the Bible James 5 : 16

 The Rwanda National Electoral Commission  has said that  more  women  have shown interest in becoming members of Parliament.

There are 326  women among the 537 candidates that have shown interest to contest in the election.

Ethiopia has declared $81.6 million as revenue for the export of electricity in the just concluded fiscal year.

The Ministry of Water, Irrigation & Electricity  has a projection to sell 1.5 billion kWh of the electricity  to Sudan and Djibouti, but was however able to sell  1.4 billion kWh within the financial year. 

The total earning from Sudan was $47.5 million, or 58.2pc,  while  $34.1 million  was from Djibouti.

Presently, Ethiopia has the potential  of generating 4,500MW of energy and a potential capacity to produce 45,000MW of hydropower, 10,000MW of geothermal and 1.3 million megawatts of wind power.

Zimbabwe President, Mr. Emmerson Mnangagwa has warned those who intend to instigate the break down of law and order  as  the 2018 harmonized elections in the country draw near to have a rethink as the full wrath of the law will be visited on them.

President Mnangagwa handed down this warning on Tuesday, while  addressing thousands of Zanu-PF supporters at a rally at Mubaira Growth Point.

"If anyone causes anarchy, the rule of law will prevail. We will not allow chaos in our country. We want peace. All those that are contesting are encouraged to contest in peace because we want law and order in our country.

"People should be allowed to do what they want, while respecting others and respecting peace."

"We accept that people have divergent views. People should not be attacked or abused because they differ with you. No, we cannot all think the same," he said.

"We now have a certain party that says it wants to shut down Harare and to shut down the country. God forbid! We have asked ourselves what this small party intends to do and how it intends to do it and on what grounds. Kana wangova mukaka wawadya, ingodya mukaka wako ugute zvakanaka.

"We are preaching peace and we are saying everyone, including this small party, has the freedom to go around the country to woo the people's vote. No one will stop any party from asking the people to vote for them, the President concluded.

In recent times, MDC-Alliance leader, Mr Nelson Chamisa  has repeatedly threatened to "shut down the country" and "cause chaos" if his party loses next week's poll.

The West African Examinations Council(WAEC) in Ghana has with held the results of all the  26, 434 candidates who sat for the 2018 West African Secondary School Certificate Examination(WASSCE) .

This followed several cases of malpractices that are been investigated by the examination body.

According to a statement by the Head of Public Affiars ,WAEC National office, Mrs. Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, ''The with held results of candidates will be cancelled if found culpable, or released if otherwise''. 

''A total of 316,999 candidates made up of 158,550 males and 158,449 females from 946 school were registered for the examination, representing 9.6 per cent higher than the 2017 candidature of 289,207 but some 1,378 candidates did not show up.

 Performance in English and Mathematics declined but improved in Integrated Science and Social Studies compared to that of the 2017 candidates''.

''"Based on the provisional results, the performance at Al- C6 in Social Studies showed a marked improvement over that of 2017 (52.25 per cent to 73.27 per cent), while Integrated Science recorded a slight improvement (43.66 per cent to 50.52 per cent).

"On the contrary, Mathematics (Core) showed a drop in performance from 2017 (42.73 per cent to 38.33 per cent). Similarly, there was a drop in the performance in English Language (54.06 per cent to 46.79 per cent),"  ''For English Language, 147,232 candidates (46.79 per cent) obtained grades A1 to C6; 99,402 (31.60 per cent) scored D7-E8 while 68,002 (21.61 per cent) had F9''..

In the Core Mathematics paper, 120,519 candidates (33 per cent) had A1-C6; 94,607 (30.09 per cent) obtained D7-E8 while 99,275 (31.58 per cent) scored F9''.

''A total of 158,691 (50.52 per cent), obtained A1-C6 in Integrated Science: with 109,069 (34.72 per cent) getting D7-E8 whilst 46,367 (14.76 per cent) had F9''.

'' For Social studies, 230, 141(73.27 per cent) obtained A1-C6; 46, 464(14.79 per cent) obtained D7-E8  whilst 37, 494(11.94 per cent) had F9.

'' The council is alerting members of the public especially candidates to be wary of  impostors, who promise to change examination results for a fee''. Candidates are to note that all WAEC results are well secured and can be authenticated. Persons with forged results will be exposed'', the statement concluded.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a political leader of Yoruba extraction, who lived by example.

His leadership impacted positively on the Yoruba people, in all spheres of life. However, it is doubtful if those who hold sway in this dispensation followed his footsteps.

Chief Awolowo had a formidable political structure that outlived him. In his time, politcal meetings were held at his Ikenne home in Ogun state.

After the passing on to glory of Chief Awolowo, in the days of military rule, Chief Adekunle Ajasin, took over the mantle of leadership and meetings were held at his Owo home, Ondo state.

During this period, the National Democratic Coalition(NADECO) came into being.

After Chief Ajasin did his beat, Pa Abraham Adesanya  took over the structure up till the end of the military era.

In the course of Pa Adesanya's leadership, those who could best be described as pseudo-Awoists and pseudo-democrats, were accepted into the fold, sadly, the true and real progressives were barred, due to the fact that they took up apointments in the military regime of the late despot, Gen. Sani Abacha.

Now known as Afenifere, the group restricted its membership, while maintaining a closely knit relationship with the Alliance for Democracy(AD).

At a glance, Afenifere was composed of the first generaton Awoists, the second 11 and the unknown elements.  

The unknown  elements eventually hijacked the structure through unconventionl means.

Of the first generation Awoists, only  a one time Governor of Lagos state, Alhaji Lateef Jakande is still alive.

However, Chiefs Bisi Akande and Segun Osoba belong to the second 11, while others were not yet into reckoning during the functonal period of the group

At a point in time, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, the Director of organization of  the Unity Party of Nigeria(UPN) then, stated that in 1982, during the last convention of the UPN, Chief Awolowo expressed the hope that  a time will come, when the good elements in the  conservatives  will join the good elements in the progressives to form a synthesis.

But present happenings in the political sphere has defied this theory, rather polarization and division are tools that have brought about the present scheme of things.

Of note, is the fact that the progressives of the time past, embarked on laudable programes such as free education, to empower the Yoruba people.

Sadly, capitalist inclined policies, nocturnal ideals and preferences are the working tools of today's leaders in the South-west geo-political zone of Nigeria, to the chagrin of the disillusioned and impoverished people.

The new definition of the progresives includes, but is not limited to, the paymnt of school fees in Primary and Secondary schools, introduction of mulitple tax regime and the preference for  mediocrity and people with doubtful educational qualificatons, to carry out government duties. So sad.